Teaching addition and subtraction: A comparative study on the math curriculum goals and the content of the first-grade math textbook in Iran, Japan, and the USA

چکیده [English]

Focusing on the math curriculum goals and content of the first-grade math textbooks in Iran, Japan and the USA, this research aimed to study about the process of teaching addition and subtraction. The math curriculum goals and content of the first-grade math textbooks of these three countries were considered as the statistical populations of the study. To collect the data documentary research was utilized and comparative method was used in order to analyze the data. The findings showed that the American curriculum focused on enhancing the ability of "problem solving " whereas, the Iranian program focused more on the "making sense and understanding the concept". On the other hand, Japan's curriculum emphasized on "understanding and exploring adding and subtracting ways" by the students themselves. During the process of teaching these two operations, American textbooks introduced the largest number of teaching methods. In the beginning of teaching addition and subtraction, except the new version of Iranian book (2011), all the books, initially teaching addition and subtraction, focused on the combination aspect of addition and reduction aspect of subtraction.